elizabeth berkley

Elizabeth Berkley (born July 28, 1972 in Farmington Hills, Michigan) is an American television, film, and stage actress.

Career

Berkley gained prominence for her role as Jessica "Jessie" Myrtle Spano in the sitcom Saved by the Bell, whom she played from 1989 to 1992.

Aside from her work on Saved by the Bell, Berkley is best known for playing Nomi Malone, the lead character in the infamous 1995 film Showgirls. The sex and nudity-laden movie, given an NC-17 rating in the United States, was a box office bomb, widely panned by critics, and is generally credited with ruining Berkley's movie career.

As time has put distance between Berkley and the infamous film (and the fact that it had gained cult status among movie buffs), she has gained reasonable critical praise with her performances in smaller roles in independent films like The Real Blonde, Roger Dodger, and Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion.

Berkley received much acclaim for her role as Honey Bruce in the 1999 London stage version of Lenny, opposite Eddie Izzard. She most recently got favorable reviews as Bonnie in the Off-Broadway production of Hurlyburly, which opened on June 11, 2005.

In 2002, she began a recurring role in the third season of the sitcom Titus as Christopher Titus' sister Shannon. The show was cancelled after the season ended. She has been seen largely in dramatic television roles since then, guest starring on series such as CSI, Without A Trace, and Threshold. Her most recent appearance was on an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent. She also starred in the Lifetime made-for-television movie, Student Seduction in which she played Christy Dawson, a high school teacher wrongfully accused of sexual harassment by one of her students who becomes obsessed with her.

Trivia

• Berkley is Jewish [1]

• She has sectoral heterochromia; her right eye is half green and half brown, and her entire left eye is green.

• She is a strict vegan and does not wear leather.

• When Berkley was nine years old, she took part in the nation-wide search for the title role in the film version of Annie. After making it to the semi-finals, she was rejected for being "too tall."

• She was the subject of a $45 million lawsuit filed by ex-boyfriend Roger Wilson against Leonardo DiCaprio. It was alleged that DiCaprio bombarded Berkley with messages after spotting her at the promotional party to his film The Man in the Iron Mask and was initially ignored. After encountering Wilson and Berkley outside a New York bar in 1998, DiCaprio allegedly instructed friends to attack Wilson, who suffered a serious throat injury after the subsequent assault. A judge threw out the case in 2004.

• On November 1, 2003, Berkley married actor/painter Greg Lauren at the Esperanza Hotel in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Greg's uncle Ralph designed her wedding dress, a silk sheath with pearled spaghetti straps.

• She attended North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, Michigan, where she was a good student and also was a member of the school ballet club. She attended college at the University of California at Los Angeles, and she earned her B.A. degree in English in 1995.

Quote

"Ever since those reviews for Showgirls, it's like I was that woman in The Scarlet Letter, except that instead of having to wear the letter 'A' for adulteress, I was condemned to wear an 'S' for showgirl."

Selected filmography

• Saved by the Bell (1989)
• Molly & Gina (1994)
• Showgirls (1995)
• The First Wives Club (1996)
• Armitage III: Poly-Matrix (1997)
• The Real Blonde (1997)
• Any Given Sunday (1999)
• Random Encounter (1999)
• Tail Lights Fade (1999)
• The Taxman (1999)
• The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)
• The Shipment (2001)
• Roger Dodger (2002)
• Moving Malcolm (2003)
• Meet Market (2004)

External links

• Elizabeth Berkley at the Internet Movie Database
• See Berkley as one of PETA's sexy Lettuce Ladies